COACH
FERENTZ: First thing, I want to clarify one thing. I don't
know if I've had a firm policy but I will assist or form one I guess.
As
far as requests for assistant coaches, you can make them directly to
me and I'll be happy to tell you probably no. Go from there.
Maybe with an exception.
I'll
try to make the coordinators available during the bye week; I say try,
I think that's probably realistic and I've always tried to do that during
Bowl preparations. We'll plan on continuing that, and I'm open
to doing that in the out-of-season.
But
the No. 1 reason for not doing is it these guys have a lot on their plates
just like the players do and quite frankly I don't think it's part of
their job description. That's my job to handle the media relations.
It's our players' job to be at interviews; if they don't have a class
conflict, and we'll do our best to suit you there. I believe our
guys have enough to do trying to get a game plan ready, get the team
ready and also look after our players. If you want to be mad,
be mad at me on that one.
Injury-wise
we are in pretty decent shape. Not sure if Paki will make it back,
another good run in here and see how that goes this week. I think
Tony Moeaki is probably doubtful, and then Bruce Davis may or may not
be able to go. But I think outside of that we are in pretty good
shape, so we feel pretty good about that.
Captain-wise
got the same four guys as last week, King and Kroul on the defensive
side, and Bruggeman and Shonn Greene again offensively. Go with
those four guys.
It
was a tough loss Saturday as we know. Two pretty good teams competing
hard and all that being said, we are moving on. Our focus now
is on Indiana. We are on the road again and playing a team that
is a very dangerous team, a team we haven't had much success against
the last couple of years. And we didn't have much success with
them when I first got here, either, and probably some parallels if you
look at it.
They
had a pretty dangerous player in Randall El back in the late 1990s,
early 2000s and we feel the same way about Lewis. He's just a
very, very dangerous player back there. He was a dangerous athlete
a couple of years ago and now he's a dangerous quarterback. He's
a guy that throws the ball well and a very explosive run on the football,
and it starts right there with him. And then Thigpen is obviously
one of the fastest players, if not the fastest player in our conference,
and very, very dangerous. Two guys right there that you really
have know about all the time.
They
have a very excellent group of receivers and their line is doing a good
job. They are balanced front pass-wise, and defensively very veteran
up front, very veteran up front and their safeties have played a lot.
Corners,
you know, they have had an injury out there, that's a little different
story. But the guys up front if I recall, I think they sacked
us nine times last year, so enough said right there. Both those
ends are excellent players. Middleton gets a lot of publicity,
and rightfully so, but the guy on the other side, Kirlew, is an excellent
football player and just a tremendous football player. So you
have those two guys out there, and the two guys inside are stout or
what-have-you.
We
have to be our best, and for us it all starts with taking better care
of the ball; stating the obvious right there. And that's No. 1
on our list right now, so hopefully we'll get that addressed a little
bit better.
Q.
Two areas offensively seem to be a concern, third down conversions and
scoring in the red zone. As you look back, what do you think the
issues are there?
COACH
FERENTZ: Well, you know, we have failed on third down, short and
long yardage, both, so we just had to do a better job there.
The
red area ties in with turnovers and most notable, our last two games,
we've opened up with pretty good drives, moved it down inside the 25
both times and turned it over both times. If I was going to pick
one thing, we had two turnovers down there last week, so we just have
to do a better job. Got to finish drives off and get the ball
in the end zone; if not, give our field goal kickers a chance to get
it done.
Q.
Does Mossbrucker have a range?
COACH
FERENTZ: You know, in our mind, in normal conditions, ball inside
the 25. But we'll extend that. There was no wind really
on Saturday.
But
I've got every confidence in him and I don't want that to be lost over
the decisions the other day. They had really nothing to do with
him. Maybe a little bit to do with him, but it's not like we are
going to -- he doesn't have training wheels on his bike. He's
playing and he's like the rest of the guys and I've got every confidence
that he can handle the situations that are out there.
Q.
How much of a confidence-builder is it for the defensive line the way
they were able to shut down Ringer the last week?
COACH
FERENTZ: They did a good job. I mean, it was a real challenge.
Michigan State has really run the ball well, and we played great back-to-back
and we face another real good one this week.
I
thought the guys responded to the challenge well, and then the challenges
that took place during the ballgame, too, they did a pretty nice job.
I think all but one time we kept them pretty well contained, but he's
a great football player. It's a good thing.
Our
defense is doing a lot of positive things and hopefully we can continue
to improve on that. This will be a different challenge this week
and a different kind of attack.
Q.
Does it get frustrating with the way the defense has played and that
the offense has not matched that and gotten the win last week?
COACH
FERENTZ: That's football. We've explained that to our team:
Doesn't really matter how you win, as long as you win. It could
be in the course of the season, it might be a 42-38 ballgame, and the
next week you might be 10-6, and it might be defense one week and special
teams the next and during the course of the season that's usually how
it works.
You
know, you go back to 2004, we virtually didn't have a running game,
so we had to lean on our defense. We had to do what we could offensively,
and 2002 is probably the opposite. Our offense was pretty high
octane pretty early on and how are defense had to catch up. That's
just football. I think as long as the players understand, everything's
fine, and I think our guys are doing a good job with that.
Q.
In three games, you've lost by a total of
nine points, when you kind of deconstruct the game in your mind and
everything like that, does it get frustrating, or do you just say, oh,
we are just a couple of plays away from being -- not necessarily record-wise?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, losing is frustrating, and the only thing worse
is getting blown out I suppose, in that you're competitive and you have
realistic opportunities. That's where we are at right now and
usually it gets down to detail things. The turnovers are very
prominent and typically prominent, special teams are typically prominent
and penalties. I think all but one game we have been pretty good
penalty-wise.
Turnovers
have been a totally different story, and special teams, we have been
erratic. We looked healthier Saturday but they have been erratic
over the past month. Those right there are probably the three
challenge areas.
And
looking back at this game last year, other than you throw in those big
plays, if you're giving up big plays, or consider a sack or a negative
yardage plays, big plays, also. So those things factor in and
that was really the story of the game last year, penalties were and
sacks were, and we just didn't give ourselves much of a chance from
the start.
Q.
Was it as good of an experience playing some of those games where the
safety gets sucked in by a play fake or maybe going the wrong way on
a block or something like that?
COACH
FERENTZ: That's usually when you look at things that cost you
or keep you from winning, you know, experience factors in there quite
a bit. We are at the six-game mark now, so hopefully we are moving
past crutch. At this point in the season, everybody has played,
so now it's time to go and we need to get going here.
Q.
When turnovers are a problem like they have been, you guys obviously
stress it in meetings and stuff, but do you do different drills in practice?
COACH
FERENTZ: Not really. We kind of talked about that a little
bit last week.
I
really think turnovers for the most part are concentration. Experience
factors in. You know, it's concentration and it's also awareness
of the situation. That was Rick's first one last week. Actually,
both of them. Those are kind of awareness things, if you will.
We had the first, so take your first down and let's move on to the next
play, that's really not the time to fight for extra yardage.
Just
in general terms, offensively any time you're down inside the 20, the
last thing you want to do is have an interception, and you sure don't
want to take a sack, things of that nature, just common sense football.
So if you don't convert the touchdown, you have a good, realistic chance
for a field goal. That's just part of the learning curve, so hopefully
we are going to move right past that and clean up some areas of our
play.
Q.
Learning curve, what's it like right now, living with kind of the ups-and-downs
of playing with a young quarterback?
COACH
FERENTZ: That's good and bad. That's kind of like our football
team right now; there's good and bad. The good news is I think
the bad is correctable, and I think the things that are keeping us from
winning I think are addressable, correctable and we'll go from there.
The
good news is our attitude is outstanding and the guys are playing with
really good effort and they are practicing well. They are doing
everything they can do to ensure that we are going to have a good season,
and that's why I feel pretty good sitting here today even though we
have lost three straight.
Our
guys, they are doing a good job.
Q.
Is it kind of one of those things with the experience factor where this
is a team that needs to learn how to win those close games right now?
COACH
FERENTZ: Yeah, that's part of the process, and it seems like that's
where we are at right now. But that being said, we can't take
anything for granted, we have to make sure we are doing the A's, B's
and C's before we are about the D's, E's and F's and that type of thing.
Again
I think the guys are making the effort but we have to get over the hump
somehow. You know, it's a team thing.
Q.
You kind of touched on this, but is there a different feel to this team,
even though you've lost three straight compared to last year?
COACH
FERENTZ: Last year, we kind of were what we were. We had
some obvious areas that we were short in, or more on experience than
anything else. We talked about that from where we started in August
to mid-season.
But
the team last year, I tell you, they worked hard and I said that a lot
of times, they worked hard and had a great attitude, and that's why
we were going to get better last year and we did, and it was disappointing
and this season is pretty much the same way. And that goes back
to March 1 when we really got our focus on spring practice. They
have been very good and we are getting great leadership from not only
the obvious guys, the senior guys but the younger guys, too, are doing
a good job.
So
that's really all that you can ask of a team. Obviously we want
to play a little smarter, a little cleaner and we have to if we are
going to start winning some football games. It's been an enjoyable
team to work with, and you know, I don't see that changing, I really
don't.
Q.
How is their passing game different without
Hardy around?
COACH
FERENTZ: Well, you know, the guy is a great player. He was
a marquee player, so it's like anybody losing a marquee player.
That's notable.
But
that being said, their group overall is a good group and they really
do all the little things right and catch the ball and they run good
routes and they hustle. They are just a good group. He's
hurt us in the past but the other guys have, too. They are all --
I think they just collectively pick up the slack.
Q.
With Lewis throwing and running, does that change the way you approach?
COACH
FERENTZ: Him as a receiver you mean? A little bit.
Basically he's dangerous wherever he is. So you know, it's a little
bit like Randle El, too. He's done pretty well as a receiver.
Or at least I assume he has; I haven't followed it real closely.
I know he was playing well in Pittsburgh.
The
guy is just a good football player and he's probably not -- not probably,
he's a better passer, better thrower than Randle El was. Randle
El hurt you with his feet a little bit more, but this guy can do it
both ways. That's a tough match up for anybody that plays him.
Q.
Obviously the pressure to win, do you feel that given the start that
this team has, it's a feeling that you have a good team; just talk about
the pressure.
COACH
FERENTZ: We are going to keep it real simple like we did last
week. We just want to win this week. That's really all we
worry about and all we need to worry about. That was our goal
last week and we came up a little short. Hopefully we can do a
little bit better this week, and we'll work worry about next week, next
week; and take a week off and see what happens after that. Right
now we are just going to worry about Saturday.
Q.
Talk about the true freshmen, tapered off a little bit for a couple
of players, Demarco, Brad Herman, where do they fit in and do you have
any regrets that you kind of threw them out there?
COACH
FERENTZ: Not really because there's a lot of football ahead of
us. We have got half our season still in front, and as we've seen
in the past, anything can happen. We are not banking on a rainy
day at all with those guys. The only downside is if they end up
not playing a lot.
To
me I go back to A.J. Edds, that's kind of what I took away from his
experiences. I think he played prominently in one game, all season,
but just the progress he made as a player working with our No. 2s every
day and going through the game planning session, all those types of
things, I think it really advances a player and accelerates him.
I think that outside of the linemen, it's a good investment. That's
kind of the consensus we have come up with as a staff.
Q.
How is Dan Doelring?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's working his way back in. He's playing fine.
The other guys are good. Yeah, he just missed probably four or
five weeks, and I wouldn't say he's full speed still. He still
has that brace on there, that I guess you call it a brace, a plastic
cast. It's just made it tough for him to operate but he's working
hard doing what he can with one hand basically.
Q.
How would you say Stanzi is handling everything mentally?
COACH
FERENTZ: He seems fine. We were on the field Sunday and
saw him in the weight room and he seems fine. You know he's a
mentally tough guy, and so is Jake. I think all of our quarterbacks
are. They have all great the right mentality. Yeah, it's
part of football, and it's like anything else. I don't think anybody
on our team thought anything was going to be easy, and I'm sure Rick
didn't think it was going to be easy.
But
that being said, I think he's done a lot of good things, too.
The attitude is great and I think he's got good mental toughness, so
I'm not worried about that.
Q.
What's the biggest challenge for him right now going forward?
COACH
FERENTZ: Just improving, like everybody on our team. Coaches,
too. We can all do a better job, and that's what we have to do.
So,
you know, just keep it simple and that's what we have got to really
do right now.
Q.
Shonn Green, can he gain 100 yards on Sunday, do you see that for him?
COACH
FERENTZ: I think it's in his future, certainly. A lot of
water to cover before we get there, but right now I'm focused on the
six games he's got scheduled left, and you know, taking care of those.
Most
impressive thing I think he's done, I've said this a couple of times
now, it's just consistent performance. He's not a 200-yards in
one game and a 42 in another. Although, that being said, if somebody
wants to take him away, they can do that and we could see that as early
as this Saturday.
I
walked in last night, caught the -- whatever you call them, the highlights
on ESPN of the Vikings and Saints game, but I did hear the guys say
that the running back from the Vikings had 30-something yards.
If he wanted to take the back out of the game, he could take him out
of the game. I didn't see the game but I guess they paid for it
in other ways, with 30 points -- I'm on a tangent here.
He's
playing well. He's really playing well.
Q.
What about Shonn’s age?
COACH
FERENTZ: I'm not worried about that. He's not on social
security yet. (Laughter).
You
know, right now, he just needs to worry about each game. That's
best thing that he can do and the best thing that all of us can do,
and we'll cross that bridge whenever we get to it, and we've been there
before with a couple of players. I hope he plays well enough where
he has a choice. That would be great.
Q.
A lot of players in the Big Ten are getting a lot of publicity, does
Shonn look at that and think -- inaudible.
COACH
FERENTZ: I haven't asked him. I don't know. Shonn's
got a lot of pride and I'm not sure he cares or knows -- I'm sure he knows
who the other guys are. They are all good players.
I
tell you, Sutton, I keep going back to him, he's as good of a player
as there is in our conference. I mean, relative terms, I hate
to rank guys, but that guy, you don't hear his name a lot in the discussions,
but boy is he a good back. Ringer is a great back. McCoy
was awfully good and I'm sure there are some guys down the road we'll
see, including Thigpen this week. I'm sure Shonn takes pride
in his performance, and have I haven't asked him but I'm sure he's worried
about his performance and happy for the success he's had. He's
worked hard.
Q.
Is McNutt transitioned out to wide receiver and kind of half and half?
COACH
FERENTZ: Kind of amphibious, ambiguous, amphibious, whatever.
He's working more at receiver right now, but we don't exactly have a
third quarterback in the bullpen right now either, so he's doing a little
bit of both. I think we are in transition and see how it
goes.
Again,
we are fairly young at that position and Marvin I think has got a lot
to offer. If we can kind a way for him to help our team, I think
he's all for it and we would be all for it.
Q.
Do you see him getting any stabs at wide receiver?
COACH
FERENTZ: We'll see. His legs are trying to catch up a little
bit. He's been through two years of inactivity as a quarterback,
so he's got sore feet, sore knees, sore everything else right now.
That's a tough job being a quarterback.
Q.
Talk about Trent’s playing progression; is he a true freshman?
COACH
FERENTZ: He's a guy that we really felt good about in recruiting,
the kicking, we thought he was a pretty good kicker -- I won't go down
that road. He's pretty good that way.
We
just really liked his mentality. He's a very mature guy.
He's a competitive guy, played multiple sports. His dad was a
state heavyweight champion not that that anything to do with it I don't
think it did but it does a little bit. There's just something
about Trent that gives you confidence.
He’s
done very well. I'm sure he's going to have some disappointment
ahead like all of us do in our careers, but we'll weather it well and
he'll come right now and he's not a guy you worry about and he's not
fragile that way, and I'll just interject this, too, I think Daniel
Murray, boy, he had a great game Saturday, and his kickoffs, we are
counting on him right now; that's his role, and we are counting on him
to do a great job with kickoffs and our kickoff coverage was less than
spectacular two weeks ago.
And
it looked a little bit healthier last Saturday and a big part is Daniel
gets the ball where he wanted it and that is really good to see.
He's doing a really good job, too. He's got a grade constitute
on top of it.
Q.
Brodell had some pretty big plays in the last two weeks with the punt
return and catches, is it see him to get back in the flow of the offense
right now?
COACH
FERENTZ: It's really good and I think we need that. I think
for us to have a chance to be successful, all of our veteran guys had
to do a good job and it's certainly, certainly good to see that, and
Brandon Meyers has been playing pretty well, so it's good there, and
like to get Tony back in the mix here one of those days and hopefully
we can get that, too. It's great to see Andy work hard and see
him make those plays.
Q.
Despite the fact that they have lost these last three, is the team
ready to get to that point where it all clicks and they get on a run;
do you feel confident that that's a real possibility?
COACH
FERENTZ: I like the way the guys are working. I like the
way they are playing for the most part. We just have to get over
the hump. That's in our hands and we have to do it. We know
six teams are going to try to resist that, so that's the challenge in
front us. But the guys, the attitude has been good and they are
working hard. Just at some point we are going to get there.
Q.
Confidence is not an issue?
COACH
FERENTZ: I don't think it is. I don't know. I don't
think it is.
Q.
You talked earlier how Indiana was able to get nine sacks last year
on you guys, is that something that you remind the offensive line about
as they prepare for this week in terms of motivating them, or do you
just not even bring that up?
COACH
FERENTZ: I'm not real big on that. I'm more I guess an advocate
of let's play better football than we have in the past and certainly
than we did in this game this year. We did some things well in
the game last year, but penalties and protection were not two of the
things we did well.
Hopefully,
and we are not going to win again this year if we allow that to happen.
We got in a situation where we had to throw probably more than we would
have liked to and that's not a good deal, either. Hopefully we
can play the game a little bit more on our terms and that will help
but I also think we are a little bit better than we were a year ago,
also. So hopefully that will factor in, too.
Q.
How do you think your offensive tackles will go against some of the
best defensive ends, how have they formed, and is this week any greater
going up against Anderson?
COACH
FERENTZ: It will be a test, and you know, last year going back
to last year, too, that's really after that game we made the decision
because he couldn't go on. He was trying to play and we had him
at left tackle and moved Calloway over to right tackle, and that probably
was not fair to him at that point, but we did it; I did it.
So
anyway it was after that that we reassessed and it's going to be another
challenge because both of these guys they really played hard in their
talent but the good news is is I think we are more capable than we were
a year ago, too, so it ought to be a good map up. Their whole
front is very veteran and experienced and our guys are gaining ground,
so it ought to be an intriguing match up to see how we do.